Biochemistry and Cellular Biology Research

Faculty in the biochemistry division are engaged in fundamental research aimed at understanding the structure and function of biomolecules involved in various cellular processes essential to life. The main areas of research pursued encompass a wide spectrum of exciting questions related to lipid transport, enzyme catalysis, signal transduction, and actin remodeling. The faculty use cutting edge techniques to explore these fundamental questions, which also have applications in identification of novel therapeutic targets, and development of effective drugs and delivery systems.

Members of the Bhandari lab study signaling molecules and mechanisms that aid in migration and survival of cancer cells.
The Grintsevich Lab investigates molecular mechanisms of actin regulation that are important for neuronal development and function.
The Narayanaswami Lab investigates the role and structure-function relationships of apoE and HDL in relation to drug and lipid transport, cellular efflux and uptake of cholesterol in the vascular and central nervous system and at the neurovascular junction under normal and oxidative stress conditions.
The Schwans Lab combines organic synthesis and biochemical approaches to investigate the energetic basis of enzyme catalysis and to develop selective and potent inhibitors of cholinesterases, enzymes implicated in Alzheimer's disease.
The Weers Lab aims to gain insight in the structural determinants of apolipoprotein association with membranes and lipoproteins, using two different models representing one-domain and two-domain apolipoproteins: insect apolipophorin III and human apolipoprotein A-I.
Members of the Sorin Lab employ Monte Carlo calculations and molecular dynamics simulations to study protein and nucleic acid self-assembly, the binding intreractions and dynamics of butylcholinesterase-inhibitor complexes, and the sequence-structure basis of human diseases casued by collagen mutations.